Hand of Time
by Fuzzy Wuzzy Stalkers
Summary: We know the present and the possible futures. But even the past had a present and several futures. Natsu is forced to make a resolute decision, facing an unreasonable enemy as dear to him as his nakama. That person must be killed. What will the consequences be if he does not go through with this? Collaboration by Sissy & Dattebayo Devon.


AN: This fanfiction ... started from crack. We will not lie. It started from jokes. And yet somehow we made it make a buttload of sense. So we're writing it. Uh, warning, POV will change now and then but we'll try to make it as obvious as possible - and it will never change in the middle of the chapter (entire chapter is stuck at one POV). Enjoy!

* * *

**Hand of Time**

**Chapter One**

* * *

Even now I can remember it. So vividly that it wakes me up at night. That despair, that stomach churning imagery.

We were caught again.

I had finally seen everyone again only to have them taken away from me. Yukino stayed at my side the whole time, trying to cheer me up. It's not like I wouldn't see them again, she tried to tell me. I wanted to believe her but this was already a very dangerous task we were being asked to fulfill. I had debated it. I had thought of how it could benefit us. I worried about what would happen after.

Would we all still be friends? Would we all even still exist?

But the preparations had still begun and we were brought up to the gate. It was as big as I had seen it the first time and its power had not even dwindled. Rather it felt like it had grown. I could hear the celebrations in the distance and knew we had won the games. Only that made me smile. When they started the ritual I knew there was no going back. The plan was coming to fruition.

I glanced at Arcadios and saw him in some sort fancy armor, as if he had prepared himself for war. Well, in a way, it would be a war. What he sought was that man's destruction. That day on the island I had never seen him but heard the whole thing. It felt as if his shadow would always follow us, as if we were cursed to have him linger in our lives.

I drew a sharp breath and felt Yukino grab hold of my hand. She seemed as nervous as I was. But her face told me she was determined. As I saw light gather in front of me a chill ran through my entire being. I felt it. Something was amiss.

Darkness approached us and I looked behind me. Yukino followed my lead and I knew the rest were the same. We saw something in the horizon. Something odd, something no one could explain. I tried to discern it and realized something dreadful. Only twice had I seen something like that. But that was impossible. There was no way that in my sights there was _that _kind of thing.

The first time we had despaired and although we should have died, it was only through our bond and the First Master's power that we had survived. The second time was surprising but it wasn't as scary. Their difference in strength, not to mention their solidness, was completely different.

But now there was only that. And my fear was much more than the first time. I heard screams behind me, all of them unsure of what they were seeing and acts of rationality to, trying to come up with a new plan. That princess passed me by and I saw Arcadios run after her. "We must evacuate the citizens!" I understood her position and felt Yukino push me. In her hands were keys I did not recognize. Immediately though, I realized they were the keys that could release my friends. As I moved to take them Yukino had pushed me again and I saw a light engulf her.

Shock was the least of my feelings. It was something much stronger. Helplessness. The castle was split in two and screams were heard from all over the city. No longer did I hear an ounce of cheering. _You have to move!_ I screamed at myself. Feeling my feet again, I had leaned over the edge to see clashes in the distance. Someone had begun to fight and I knew without a doubt who they were.

I ran for the stairs as fast as I could. Even though I had no knowledge of where the others were, all I knew was that I had to go to them. Soldiers were running to and fro without paying me a single glance. _How do I find them? Where are they?!_ I had to think. And then I heard their voices. On the other side of the hallway I was in, I saw Natsu in the front of the group. My tears fell. They were alright. Perhaps they got out on their own, perhaps all the shaking released their cages. It did not matter. They were alright!

Until the next attack.

When I opened my eyes, I saw nothing but rubble. Where had they gone, I wondered. Calling out their names, I headed forward. And that's when I realized. They had been in front of me the whole time. The floor was dyed red. Their insides were visible. I held a hand over my mouth.

_No! This can't be happening!_ I did not want to believe this was real. It couldn't be real. Was I sleeping somewhere? When had I fallen asleep? I tried to rationalize this, it was impossible.

A roar passed me by. I looked out the window to see one of them. Grand, huge and terrorizing. Of course, though I had to be scared, I no longer felt any of that. My feet moved upwards the stairs, I didn't want to lose it. _My friends! Give me back my friends!_

I screamed and brought out the first of my spirit allies I could grab. It was Taurus. Though I should've brought out more, it was useless. The moment it had seen us, we were its target. I felt the shadow of Taurus seconds before I could summon someone else, even if they were all in my hand.

The pain and the force brought me to the ground. I looked at the dragon fly away, its victory over me already assured. My eyelids felt heavy and I slowly lost consciousness.

*  
When I opened my eyes again, I felt different. Something was wrong with me. Heaviness was wearing me down and I tried to get up. I couldn't. _Why...? _Rather, I couldn't feel anything through my right hand.

I turned to look to my right and held in a gasp. The blood that had already pooled, the blood that had already dried, the blood that no longer flowed. Everything that felt so unreal to me was an indication that it wasn't. I couldn't think. _What...? How...?_

No. I know how. I slowly brought my left hand over the empty space and while still trembling, touched the wound. _It's real..._ I bit the bottom of my lip and tried to hold in my tears.

For what felt like eternity I clutched my body. I don't know what to do. Someone please tell me what's a lie and what's the truth!

But I couldn't stay like this forever. I knew that much. Somehow, while taking care of not falling into habit, I slowly got up. Around me was so much destruction and fires that had already been put out. I looked around for an exit and remembered I had seen some path before. Almost falling and with no clear idea of where I was heading, I found myself in front of the room I had been in the beginning. Before...all of that.

There were marks on the floor of the tragedy that had passed through and I walked towards that structure with mixed feelings. I was supposed to have helped them open this. And I was supposed to have passed through. That's why Yukino and I were there. But, would it still work?

I noticed something to the side. It was a corpse of an old man. He was with the princess and Arcadios, right? I notice a piece of cloth under the rubble and remember. They had been talking about wearing something before crossing, right? I was so nervous I had not even paid attention. In any case, there's a breeze around here and I'm starting to feel cold. Better to wear something over me than nothing at all. And it's not like...not like I could ask Virgo to make something for me.

Pushing the rubble away, I see a hand underneath. I shiver and pull on the cloth. _I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me._ I knew that was wrong. It was like pilfering from the dead. Eventually, I managed to pull it out and as I had thought, it was a cloak. With some difficulty, I manage to put it on me. I pull the hood up and walk over to the gate.

How would this work? Will it even work? My hand passes through and I feel warmth coming from it. _It... It still works?!_ I can't believe it. Am I lucky? Is this sturdier than it looks?

Whatever the case, it looks like I can pass through. How ironic. I had been afraid of this because I did not know what consequences would arise from it, but now I found myself needed its magic. A roar in the distance surprises me. Are they... Are they still around? No time to think! Just go!

*  
My knees hit the ground first. My skin tingled as if it burned with the ethereal energy wrapped within the portal ... I could feel changed, a foreign magic encasing my own as I lay on my back , refusing to open my eyes. Underneath my eyelids I could still see the horrendous images of war and death ... of friends and faces long gone and missing. Would I open them and still see a war? Would I open them to find I have succeeded? Or would I have landed in some future far from existence, or some past long forgotten from archived history? Even if the gate had the correct coordinates, even if the gate showed the warped and twisted celebrations of the colosseum,there was still the chance that the magic had thrown me in another direction. The gate might still stand grand from where I came, but by then it had been well used and abused. The magic may have clashed with my own and kept her from reaching her true destination.

My mouth was shut to avoid the probable taste of dust in the air; my skin was numb from the tingling of the time travel magic; my eyes were shut in fear of having done wrong. The only sense still awake to the world was my hearing, and as I listened ... I heard ... nothing.

No roars of the colosseum. No cheering. No battles.

But there also weren't any clashes of weapons, cries of fear, of pain.

I relaxed.

My sense of smell awakened next, unwilling though I was. I sniffed the air and did not smell the stench of skin, flesh, bone and blood - a stench I'd become all too familiar with. Instead something sweet stung the insides of my nose, and I wrinkled not necessarily from displeasure but from from the unfamiliarity, the lost association with the smell. But it was powerful, and I could smell wet grass. Wet grass! I hadn't smelled such a heavenly smell since the grounds burned and the cities toppled down over the forests ...I did not know how many days I had lost for it to happen, but it did ... and it happened too quickly for anyone's liking. I inhaled so deeply that my lungs rose in my chest and I could feel no burden other than the burden of the clean air. I couldn't fight the smile that crossed my face - the gore remained within my mind's eye, but the scent! The smell was so powerful I wanted to cry for joy of it, feeling the extremity of joy that I hadn't been able to feel for so long ...!

I soon felt the solid earth beneath me, and the grass beneath it tickling and poking my sore and aching skin. Nothing sharp, nothing dirty, nothing ominous ... the wind was gentle against my cheeks, blowing my loose bangs across my forehead and my skin. _Maybe I did die in the portal_. Such a thought crossed my mind, but it did not frighten me ... if this was death, or life, either way it felt nice.I felt a tranquility I hadn't been able to feel in so long ... too long. Not since the smiles of the Fairy Tail guild and all my friends had been shattered with a thousand cries.

But I knew I had a mission. Living I would complete it. Dead, I would still try to warn the past if I could. I moved my left hand across the grass, feeling the ache of the familiar muscles of my body groan, but brush across the grass and a few random stones. _I have to be living_, I realized, feeling the breath hitch in my throat. _I have to make sure ... that I'm at least where I should be._

The battles raged in my mind, the images of events that transpired over the past few days - weeks for all I knew - in my head still fresh in my mind no matter what time I had entered. I needed to know ... I needed to find that willpower to know!

So I opened my eyes.

And was met with a vast blue.

A vast cerulean blue.

The kind ... that used to grace the skies of Magnolia before ...

If the tears had fought against the smells, the touch, the sounds ... they would come from the sights. From seeing my friends dead on the ground, or dying ... to seeing such a wonderful color I thought I wouldn't be able to see again, at least not dotted with the objects of the futures' fears ... it was too much to take. I allowed myself to sob. From joy? From sorrow? From grief? from happiness? I don't know ... it was an emotion I couldn't translate. It was ... indescribable. But it was one of the most powerful emotions I had ever felt and I let it flow out as I lay there, staring up at that brilliant cerulean blue sky. That emotion has never fully left ... it was too permanently engraved into my heart.

At one point or another, as the skies began to dim, I rolled up and felt my stomach growl and slosh ... I had sat up too fast. And I was hungry ... as I always was the days before in my time. I blinked, letting my eyes refocus on the surroundings. as my legs curled further up to my chest. The skies covered a meadow of some kind, a forest along an edge. I could see plots of farmland spread out, corn reaching up towards the sky and cabbage crops in others. I even now heard the noises of farm animals, something I remained deaf to until I decided to listen to the world and not just its pleasures. The portal had tossed me somewhere other than the colosseum ... somewhere far from it. Which means I had slipped out from the magic, I hadn't entered it as precisely as I should, or my magic clashed ... whatever happened, it was done. I ... I needed to find out where I was. When I was. My emotions, my memories, needed to come second.

I stood up ... I brushed off my cloak. I would have winced at the grass stains, but they were preferable to blood stains. They were incomparable to the wounds sustained by her friends ... I pulled my hood up over my head, brushing my sweaty bangs out of the way. It felt too warm underneath the cloak, but at least it was comfortable ... and it would hide my appearance in case I was in a time or a place I shouldn't be in. _It's so peaceful ... and it looks like Fiore. _I note as I observe the trees I hadn't seen in who knows how long. The plants, the construction along the roads ... they all appeared native. _It has to be the past ... please let it be far enough back in the past, but not too far back._ I couldn't be certain ... this wasn't an area I was familiar with.

I allowed my feet to lead me through the grass. Down the dirt and pebble-lined path. Past the farm houses, which by the late afternoon evolved into homes, evolving into townhouses, until by dusk I had reached the heart of a city. In the city were no familiar faces but all the telltale signs of a familiar world. The houses and shops lining the streets all stood two to three stories tall, painted in the fresh pastel colors common of the palette of Fiore; men and women dressed in richly dyed clothes, untorn, unblemished, far from the scars of war. Children were playing in the streets though parents began to usher them in for the night, candlelight and lacrimas decorating the windows and lanterns to keep the streets aglow. It felt warm ... it felt inviting ... it filled my heart with joy.

I continued to walk down the streets, occasionally earning the natives' inquisitive stare but I was small and nonthreatening so many did not look twice. Ironically, I was probably the only Fairy Tail member who didn't manage to grab everyone's attention walking down the street. Erza would lug a giant cart of her suitcases, Natsu would break something or eat fire in front of strangers, Gray would accidentally leave his clothes somewhere and the good citizens made sure he put them back on, Happy ... well, a flying, talking cat always attracted attention. I am the one least likely to draw attention to myself ... and yet, now, a time traveller that not only went from the past to the future, but hopefully back to the past from a future I know I must save ourselves from.

Thinking of the people I had seen not too long ago made my heart ache, and I stopped. I needed to figure out my _own_ situation before dwelling upon something that did not yet exist. The villagers would look but they wouldn't question me further. I am not suspicious enough, nor do I attract attention. They wouldn't be able to see what became of my right arm underneath the cloak ... if they could they would surely look twice, and perhaps question what had gone wrong once they saw the haunted gaze left on my face. But they couldn't. So they wouldn't.

I was lost in my thoughts until something had hit me square in the face. I heard voices in front of me of the people responsible for what I had in my hand - they seemed frantic, the kind of frantic they only danced with when something great or tragic had happened. I looked to see it was a newspaper. _That's right!_ This was exactly what I needed, wasn't it? A way to find out what time it was without having to ask anyone like a lunatic! Unraveling the newspaper as well as I could with one hand, the headline jumped out at me first:

_NO SIGN OF FAIRY TAIL YET_

What? What does this mean? My eyes scan the date only to notice the most important thing of all. It said, March 25th X785. _There's no way..._ I scan the article and read it in length.

_The bright light... Report of the dreaded dragon... Magic Council has no comment... Sources say they're losing hope... Remaining members still strong... Perhaps Fiore has lost a precious and irreplaceable guild in a tragedy we hope never to see again._

My heart stopped.

I ... I had gone too far back in time.


End file.
